I Love Words: Saucebox

Word: saucebox

Pronunciation: \ˈsȯs-ˌbäks, ˈsas-\

Function: noun

Date: 1588

Definition: a saucy impudent person

(Some folks may want a definition for 'impudent,' so here you go: 1 [obsolete]: lacking modesty; 2: marked by contemptuous or cocky boldness or disregard of others : insolent.)

I'd actually never heard this word before until I read it recently in an Editrix post (Thanks, Ed!). Love it. Apparently, it's the precursor to saucy and sassy, two other favorites. Sassy reminds me of my pubescent days when I had a subscription to the eponymous magazine - such a great publication for young girls because they employed healthy (not anorexic), unconventional (read: normal!) female models and highlighted topics and people who were hip and smart instead of what the common fair focused on (i.e., diets, diets, diets, omgBOYS!, gossip, sex, Sex, and SEX). Of course, this was before they were purchased by a big conglomerate and morphed into just another teen rag ('Stepford Sassy' as writers at Bust [a great magazine, btw] and the authors of How Sassy Changed My Life called it.)

Words like sassy and saucy went on to inspire my young adult life as well. Case in point, this campy photo captured by my cousin. Saucy, very saucy. (No, we're not really hitchhiking. We're just being silly in a field in the middle of nowhere.)

As a result of my saucebox research I found out that it is also the name of what appears to be a pretty cool restaurant in Portland, OR. Will have to check it out if I ever get up that way.


Other "I Love Words" Posts

I Love Words: Interrobang

Word: interrobang

Pronunciation: \in-ˈter-ə-ˌbaŋ\

Function: noun

Etymology: interrogation (point) + bang (printers' slang for exclamation point)

Date: 1967

Definition: a punctuation mark (‽) designed for use especially at the end of an exclamatory rhetorical question

I found intterobang mentioned in an Editrix post last month and was intrigued to found out more about it. It allows for the messiness and reality of communication and doesn't demand you separate out the emotions but lets them coexist on the same plane. I've always found it to be the perfect punctuation for folks like myself who are often trying to say many things at once, trying to cram all the thoughts and emotions they can into a paragraph, a sentence, a clause (you know, something profound like "What the fuck‽"). And now I know what it's called. Thank you, interrobang. Thank you for being such an accommodating punctuation mark.